Housing Supervisor Retires from CTHHS

By Misty Cryer

A surprise retirement party was held recently to celebrate Johnnie Bradford, the Housing Supervisor for Carlsbad Transitional Housing and Homeless Shelter, who has been there for over a decade. She has seen the organization grow into two programs with six transitional houses and the addition of the shelter. While many people have benefited during her service, she feels that she is leaving it in good hands.

“The intricate value of the job is just awesome. It’s a mission; it’s not really a job,” said Bradford. She said, “You know when you get there in the morning that you are going to help somebody. You are going to make a difference in someone’s life.”

Bradford said she will be 81 this year, so she figures it is time to pass it on to somebody else. After taking a break, she said she plans to volunteer: “I can’t imagine not doing that.”

What is great about transitional housing, Bradford said, is the families. “They are amazing; they really are.” She said the program strives to meet special needs; every family works with a mentor and has a budget. “Whatever they need, we’ll find it.”

People who have gone through the program now work at the mines or are teachers or counselors, Bradford said. She said people in their houses are working to earn a high school diploma or pursue a career, mentioning various fields.

Bradford said, “It’s a pleasure to work with everybody.” She mentioned coworkers, the board, the school system, mentors, and volunteers contributing to the life-changing services the programs provide.

“What makes it so great is all the great people and the network that we have here in Carlsbad to help people,” she said.

Before any programs were in place, when growing up in Hobbs, Bradford said, “I was homeless whenever I was in high school.” She said she struggled through high school and worked pretty much around the clock, going to school and beauty school and cleaning up a beauty shop to pay for her tuition. “I attended my graduation by myself with no family.”

Being ashamed of being homeless, Bradford said, she never told anyone about it until her youngest son, who was in high school, seemed to have a passion for helping people who were struggling. “I couldn’t keep any canned goods; they kept disappearing,” she said, adding that he would put them in his car and pass them out all the time.

She told a story about her son picking up a man off the road who had been beaten up. He took him home with him for three days, gave him a suitcase and some money to visit his daughter in Phoenix, who was ill. The man sent the money back to him. “He just kept doing things like this. He had such faith in people,” she said.

Bradford said she dated her husband in high school, and they married when they were 18. He was going to school in Portales. “I worked across the street from the college and loved my job.” She said, “I put him through school to get his master’s.”

While her husband was in Vietnam, Bradford said she stayed there, after which they adopted their first son. She said she always wanted to go to school and, with her husband’s encouragement, started college when he was in graduate school.

Her husband, working for Sherwin-Williams, she said, “We made about 16 moves around the country.” Due to moves and changes between schools, she said she had to change or tweak her major, but eventually earned degrees in child development and organizational management.

Bradford said she had several careers in her life, including being Assistant Director of the Child Development Lab School in Texas and Development Specialist and Assistant Director for CARC Inc. in Carlsbad. She retired from there because she had three granddaughters who needed childcare, after which she volunteered at Jonah’s House. “I took the girls with me, and they helped,” she said.

Someone asked her to apply for Carlsbad Transitional Housing, she said. The girls were going to school, so she took the job with the understanding that her grandchildren came first. “The three girls became the very best volunteers ever,” she said.

Bradford said she turned in her resignation almost a year ago. “We’ve been looking for someone who can step in.” She said she was concerned about leaving the families that she was working with.

“We found Janalisa; she is amazing,” said Bradford. “She has many more talents and skills than I ever thought about having, and so I’m leaving transitional housing in even a better spot.”